Keisha Turner

By the time Elijah got his first promotion at Baal, you seemed to be disillusioned and skeptical about him. Can you tell us why?Actually, it was his second promotion. The first promotion was great. But he had started spending more time at work, working a lot of overtime, and coming home tired. We didn’t spend nearly as much time together. Then came those stupid conferences and business trips. He would be gone for days, and oftentimes I wouldn’t hear from him. Not a call, not even a text. I didn’t even know he was asked to be on the Baal TV commercial until my cousin sent me the youtube link. His precious job was more important to him than his family, and that, to me, is unacceptable. And that was before I found out he had been sleeping with his boss.

Did Elijah physically abuse you and your daughter?I’d rather not talk about that. When we were in danger, he came for us. That’s all that matters.

Can you tell us about the kidnapping of you and your daughter? How did you feel?Every day I went to pick up Elisha from her new school. I hear a lot of horror stories about children getting kidnapped on their way home from school, and I wanted to make sure I saw her before anybody else did. One day I went to pick her up, and I get a text from her that says I need to come inside the school and meet her in the gym. Once I arrive, I find her on the floor unconscious with a man in a ski mask holding her phone. Then a hand covers my nose and I smell something strong…must have been chloroform…and everything goes black. I wake up in one of those metal storage crates disaster preppers use for emergency shelters, and my daughter is nowhere in sight. I was terrified.

As Elijah began to rise in the corporate ranks at Baal, the two of you seem to grow further apart. Can you tell us some of the changes in Elijah’s temperament?He was colder, more distant. A lot of times, it was like we were leading two separate lives, with the only connection being Elisha. At least he still spent time with his daughter, but even that seemed strained. And his fuse got a lot shorter. Look, I’m no dummy. I know he had anger issues when I started dating him. He spent time in a juvie hall, for Pete’s sake. But for a while, right when we had gotten married, and he first started his job, and Elisha was a baby, he was happy. Really, truly, happy. We were happy. And things were great. But as he climbed the corporate ladder, advancing in his job seemed to take higher priority over us. I got a job to take some of the burden off of him, but he acted as if my contribution wasn’t important. That hurt.

Why did it take you so long to leave Elijah?That’s a stupid question. Elijah is my husband. Leaving is a last resort. What happened to me only happened once, and I left to make sure it never happened again. But after everything that has happened since, right now I feel safer with Elijah than without him.